Shadowing Practice: The Differences Between Generations — And What They Mean for a Changing America - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
the generation we are born into impacts every aspect of our life.
2
Think about that, y'all.
3
It impacts our attitudes, our values, our economic conditions, our opportunities, even our well-being.
4
Some people have challenged this idea.
5
How so?
6
Yeah.
7
Well, I think pretty much everyone agrees that growing up now, living now, is completely different from what it was like to live 100 years ago.
8
or 50 years ago, even 20 years ago.
9
There's just so many changes in technology and the way that we led, the way that we relate to each other and everything else.
10
Where you get the challenges is people say, well, why are we putting people into these arbitrary 15 to 20 year groups?
11
Well, because that's really an easier way to study people.
12
Otherwise, how would we have the language?
13
Would we have to say each individual birth year or people born in the 70s?
14
And there are some reasons to group people that way.
15
it allows us to just understand more about each other, which is really the point, you know, not to point fingers or stereotype, but to try to understand each other better.
16
That's why I got into doing this in the first place.
17
Okay, so you write about a phenomenon called the slow life strategy.
18
What is that?
19
Yeah, so it explains so much about how things have changed over the generations.
20
So when you have a society that's just more technologically complex, people live longer because we have better medical care,
21
And then education takes longer to finish.
22
So it slows down the whole life cycle.
23
Like not day to day, but in terms of years.
24
That people take longer to grow up and longer to grow old.
25
So in childhood, kids are less independent.
26
Teenagers are now much less likely than, say, Gen X was at the same age to have a driver's license.
27
Or to have a paid job.
28
They're less likely.
29
Yes.
30
Much less likely.
31
And why is that?
32
That they're less likely?
33
That's what I hear.
34
The teenagers now don't have driver's license.
35
That's right.
36
...nor care about driving.
37
Right.
38
And why is that?
39
Well, there's a couple reasons.
40
So one is the parties on Snapchat or Instagram, but that's one element.
41
Yeah.
42
But it is also this slow-life strategy.
43
They just are not as eager to do adult things in the way
44
that Gen Xers or even millennials were at the same age.
45
They look at having a driver's license and they're like, you know.
46
Oh, see, I thought it was because of Uber.
47
Well, until really recently, you couldn't take Uber until you were 18.
48
Plus, we see the decline in driver's licenses, even in rural areas where Uber isn't around.
49
Uber's expensive, too.
50
So, and it's also not just the driver's license.
51
They're less likely to have a paid job.
52
They're less likely to go out on dates.
53
They're less likely to drink alcohol.
54
So nobody's getting jobs at 15 and 16 anymore?
55
Not as much.
56
Yeah.
57
Not as much.
58
It's much less common.
59
So all of those adult things, those happen later.
60
So they're just taking longer to do those things.
61
That's why it's called the slow life strategy.
62
Yeah, that's right.
63
And then it shows up in young adulthood, too.
64
There's this reluctance to you become an adult.
65
It's now a verb adulting right and that's
66
and nobody ever says adulting for all the fun things about
67
being an adult like being independent it's things like doing laundry
68
and paying your bills yeah there's that focus on oh that's no fun
69
but just on the practical matter young adults um take longer
70
to settle into a career to get married to have children
71
but it goes on because middle-aged people look
72
and feel younger than their parents
73
or grandparents did at the same age thank god for hair
74
color yeah it's actually biomarkers too they've looked at it
75
and we actually are younger than a few decades ago it's
76
not just hair color yeah no it isn't noah efron once said
77
that hair color is the greatest gift ever given to women
78
that lady clara yeah yeah it is it made a huge difference
79
because you know it just did yeah yeah
80
and i will always color my hair i will be in the the casket, colored.
81
Oh God.
82
So, so go ahead.
83
Yeah.
84
So that's middle age.
85
And then just as people get older, they enjoy more years of health and more years of life.
86
Yeah.
87
And so all of that has contributed to the slow life strategy.
88
Yeah.
89
So Amanda Schneider is a researcher and writer and her upcoming book is called Work for What's Next?
90
Why Workplace Culture is Failing and How the Next Generation Can Fix It.
91
Welcome, Amanda.
92
Thank you.
93
So I'm so happy that we're having this conversation because I hear all the time the,
94
you know, differences between the generations in the workplace.
95
And you say work is broken.
96
How so?
97
So I think we are actually changing the vernacular when we think about work.
98
And I think, unfortunately, right now, we're focused on the wrong problem.
99
When we hear people talk about work today in the media, especially it's around return to office, but we can't fix a how problem with a where solution.
100
Bringing them back won't matter if there's a problem with how we're working.
101
So the next generations who are naturally digital first, meaning they see the world through a digital mindset,
102
can really help us figure out how to evolve work for this digital era, meaning blending physical and digital work.
103
Right.
104
And so I know that some Gen Zers say that they've gotten a bad rap.
105
Do you think Gen Zers have gotten a bad rap in the workplace?
106
Definitely.
107
Definitely.
108
People say they don't want to work as hard as their parents.
109
Yeah.
110
Uh, they demand work-life balance.
111
Yeah.
112
Uh, and believe in, don't really believe in loyalty to the company.
113
Are those generalizations true?
114
They're true, but there's another perspective there.
115
Okay, what is it?
116
So if we want to look at their perspective, we have to understand how they think.
117
And I think that we have to do more to bring these generations together.
118
So if I had to summarize kind of what's shifting, work used to be a noun.
119
And I think some older generations think about work as a physical place.
120
Meaning when my dad said he was going to work, it meant he was physically taking his bag and he was going to an office, right?
121
Yes.
122
Yes.
123
When these younger generations think I'm going to work, if you look at how my kids hear me when I I say I'm going to work, it means I'm going to open my laptop somewhere.
124
Might be at an office, might be at home, might be somewhere in between.
125
That's a fundamental difference in the way we perceive the languaging of it.
126
I think it's a fundamental difference in how these different generations see the world.
127
Okay.
128
And so to fix work, we're going to have to really understand and fix the systems that are evolving from a noun to a verb.
129
Jean, you even write that Jinzy is skeptical for the need for hierarchy in the workplace.
130
You call this flattening.
131
Explain what that is.
132
Yeah.
133
So it goes along with individualism, just more focus on the self and less on others.
134
It's been another big change in the culture over the years that shaped generations.
135
So in the workplace, it just means a lot less hierarchy.
136
And we've seen this across many decades, that it used to be people would call their boss by their last name, you know, Mr. Jones, Ms. Patel, right?
137
And now it's Mike or Priya, you call them by the first name.
138
Sometimes you might even call them bro, if you're in Gen Z.
139
Yeah, really.
140
Just much more casual.
141
And we see this in dress.
142
You call your boss bro?
143
I don't.
144
Yeah.
145
But you would call you some people call their bosses.
146
My kids probably will.
147
My kids call me bro.
148
Okay.
149
All right.
150
I am from San Diego.
151
Okay.
152
Explain some of it.
153
Okay.
154
Yeah.
155
But it comes out in dress too
156
that it used to be people would wear suits to work and really dress up to work.
157
And then it was, oh, in the 90s we had casual Friday and now every day is casual Friday.
158
Yeah.
159
And again, for my kids, maybe people looking at them, I'm kind of wondering if in the future people end up at work wearing pajama pants.
160
Maybe we're already there.
161
Yeah, I think we are already there.
162
And it also just comes in how people relate to each other.
163
That it used to be much more common for bosses just to tell employees, okay, this is what you're going to do, and they would go and do it.
164
And now it's much more of a team mentality and much more of the manager working with people
165
rather than ordering them around
166
and talking more about why we're doing what we're doing
167
and why it's important rather than just go do this because that's what I told you to do.
📺 Same Channel
B2The Reality of Homelessness Most People Never See
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
Do Our Dogs Miss Us When We’re Away?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
Why Sleep Is So Important - and What We’re Getting Wrong
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
One Woman’s Search for Meaning Led Her to AI Delusion
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
Are We Getting Too Comfortable With Claude?
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
The Best Leaders All Start with This One Thing
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2How to Make Yourself Attractive to Anything You Want
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
The 50-Cent-a-Day Habit That Really CAN Build Wealth
Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students
B2Why Are So Many People Finding Stoicism in Our Modern Day?
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2The Lessons We Need to Learn from the Financial Crash of 1929
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
How writing this novel has helped Mara Brock Akil heal
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
How Does Money Factor into Your Life's Purpose
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C11
Ocean Vuong Shares with Oprah What She Meant to Him and His Mother
Working Adults
C12
Adam Grant and Oprah Discuss Tapping Into Your Hidden Potential
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2Esther Perel Has a Lot to Say about People Dating Chatbots
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
Author Douglas Stuart Explores Faith and Desire in His Latest Novel
University Students
B21
Finding Peace Through Family Estrangement
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
When does our technology use become an addiction?
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B25
Esther Perel on How Dating Has Changed over the Last 20 Years
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
Mara Brock Akil: We’re Responsible for Our Own Healing
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
✨ Recommend Video
B21
184 sentences
Why Gen Z Doesn't Want To Work
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2312 sentences
Asking 20 and 30 Year Olds About Their Biggest Regrets in Life
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
380 sentences
1955 vs 2025, who actually had it better?
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
202 sentences
You won't fall behind
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B29
19 sentences
What is the “generation gap problem”?
University StudentsWorking Adults
![[B2] Smartphone Addiction Conversation | English Listening & Speaking Practice](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DRhbklTkLM0/mqdefault.jpg)
B2465
60 sentences
[B2] Smartphone Addiction Conversation | English Listening & Speaking Practice
Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
![[Podcast 13] You only live once, so enjoy your life | Podcast with Anne](https://img.youtube.com/vi/AObk38i6isI/mqdefault.jpg)
B21
137 sentences
[Podcast 13] You only live once, so enjoy your life | Podcast with Anne
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
169 sentences
The Male Reading Crisis
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
131 sentences
Inside Gap Inc.’s Plan To Rewrite Its Story for Gen Z | Behind The Business
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
257 sentences
The Buy Nothing Rebellion is Growing... No More CRAP
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
138 sentences
Oprah on Faith, Purpose, and Becoming Who You're Meant to Be
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
450 sentences
Family Values of the Top 1%
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Differences Between Generations — And What They Mean for a Changing America”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: generation, likely, longer. This video has 167 sentences and 1551 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:14. The speaker talks fast, about 188 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| workplace noun | /ˈwɝkˌpleɪs/ | The place where someone works. |
| noun noun | /naʊn/ | A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea… |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| hierarchy noun | /ˈhaɪ.ə.ɹɑː(ɹ).ki/ | A body of authoritative officials organized in nested ranks. |
| evolve verb | /ɪˈvɑlv/ | To move (something) in regular procession through a system. |
| teenager noun | /ˈtiːnˌeɪ̯d͡ʒə/ | A person between thirteen and nineteen years old (inclusive). |
| biomarker noun | /ˈbaɪoʊˌmɑɹkɚ/ | A substance used as an indicator of a biological state, most commonly disease. |
| casket noun | /ˈkæs.kɪt/ | A little box, e.g. for jewellery. |
| flatten verb | /ˈflæ.tən/ | To make something flat or flatter. |
| generalization noun | An act or instance of generalizing; concluding that something true of a subclass is true of the entire class. | |
| grandparent noun | /ˈɡɹæn(d)pɛəɹənt/ | The parent of someone's parent. |
| individualism noun | /ˌɪn.dɪˈvɪ.dʒu.əˌlɪ.zəm/ | The tendency for a person to act without reference to others, particularly in matters of style, fashion or mode of thought. |
| millennial adjective | /mɪˈlɛn.ɪ.əl/ | Thousand-year-old; also (by extension, loosely) thousands of years old. |
| reluctance noun | /ɹɪˈlʌktəns/ | Unwillingness to do something. |
| stereotype noun | /ˈstɛ.ɹi.əˌtaɪp/ | A conventional, formulaic, and often oversimplified or exaggerated conception, opinion, or image of (a person or a group of people). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| come out in verb | to be afflicted by (a visible disruption of the body) | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| go along with verb | To acquiesce to or comply with a proposal, despite lacking a desire or value for it. | |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Otherwise, how would we have the language?
- There's this reluctance to you become an adult.
- You call your boss bro?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to be |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have challenged · have changed · they've looked |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are born · is called · is broken |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 34 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: hierarchy /ˈhaɪ.ə.ɹɑː(ɹ).ki/, individualism /ˌɪn.dɪˈvɪ.dʒu.əˌlɪ.zəm/, millennial /mɪˈlɛn.ɪ.əl/, stereotype /ˈstɛ.ɹi.əˌtaɪp/, vernacular /vɚˈnækjəlɚ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like workplace, noun, verb.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.